Harper's Weekly

“ We have pledged our word to them as solemnly as we pledge it to any people, and there are Americans who urge us to spurn our own word as a mere dicer's oath. But if Indians are vermin, what business have we to bind ourselves to them by pledges? If we mean to treat them as we find most convenient for our advantage at different times, but still to refuse them citizenship or the protection of law, would not a policy of extermination be more charitable for them, and less degrading and demoralizing for ourselves? They are, indeed, a poor and ignorant remnant of a people. ”

“ But when the Indians are driven to starvation and despair by the villainies of contractors and criminals, and burst out into fierce reprisals, it is they only who feel our avenging power. Why should not the soldiers who are summoned to drive the Indians back to their reservations when they escape also drive off the marauders who trespass upon the reservations? If our policy be to take care of the Indians, and not to leave them to take care of themselves like all other people in the country, we are morally bound to protect them from offense as well as to punish them when they offend. ”

“ If it is pleaded that our whole Indian policy of treaties is a mistake, it can be renounced without infamy upon our part. When the Utes massacre their friend Meeker, or ambush our soldiers, there is a cry of wrath and horror for the most summary justice. ”